Elevator Myths: Cable Snaps, Free Fall and Running Out of Air

Almost everyone has seen the movie scene: the villain cuts the cable, the car drops, and sparks fly. It is vivid, and it is why a harmless ride can feel like a gamble for some people. This page takes the most common myths one at a time and checks each against sources we actually read, including an industry association, a testing organization and a science publisher. It also stays honest about rare accidents, because they do happen, and it is educational only. For the full picture of protective systems, see elevator, lift and escalator safety.

Myth: one snapped cable sends the car plunging

A traction elevator does not hang from a single line. HowStuffWorks, a general science publisher, says almost all of these elevators use between four and eight steel ropes, which most people call cables. If one snapped, it says, the remaining ropes would hold the car, and in fact one rope is usually enough. It adds that each rope is made of several lengths of steel wound together, that they very rarely snap, and that inspectors regularly check them for wear.

The same source also notes that even a steel rope can break, which is why the design does not stop there. If you want the machine basics behind this, how elevators and lifts work explains the ropes, the sheave (the grooved wheel they run over) and the counterweight.

Myth: if the cables go, nothing stops the car

This is the claim the movies rely on, and it ignores the next layer. HowStuffWorks explains that if every rope failed, the elevator's safeties would act. Safeties are braking devices on the car that grab the guide rails running up and down the shaft. Some clamp the rails and others drive a wedge into notches, and they are typically set off by a mechanical governor, a pulley that turns as the car moves and triggers the brakes when it spins too fast.

This idea predates modern codes by a long way. Smithsonian Magazine, summarizing historian Andreas Bernand, describes Elisha Otis raising a platform high in the air at a New York exhibition in 1854, then cutting the cable. Instead of falling 50 feet, the platform "stopped short after only a few inches of travel." A safety catch did the work. That demonstration is often seen as the start of the elevator industry, and our history of the elevator tells the rest.

Myth: a car with failed safeties is in true free fall

True free fall would need no friction and no air. HowStuffWorks says that even if the safeties failed, the car would not quite be in free fall, because friction from the rails and air pressure from beneath the car would slow it considerably. It adds that the car would compress the air at the bottom of the shaft, and that most cable elevators have a shock absorber at the bottom of the shaft, typically a piston in an oil-filled cylinder, called a buffer.

This is physics for context. It does not mean a fall would be harmless, and nobody should treat it as a reason to relax about maintenance. Several independent layers are designed so that such a scenario does not arise in the first place.

Myth: jumping at the last second saves you

The popular tip says to jump just before impact so that you are "floating" when the car lands. HowStuffWorks calls this a non-starter: if you and the car are falling at the same speed, jumping up inside the car leaves you still moving at nearly that speed. We mention it only to correct the myth. No page here recommends planning around a fall, and the useful advice is always about prevention and about waiting for trained help, which the page on what to do if you are stuck in an elevator covers.

Myth: you will run out of air when the car stops

A stalled car is a small room, so the worry is natural, but sources that address it agree the supply is fine. DEKRA, an international testing and inspection organization, quotes elevator expert Karl-Friedrich Schöps in an August 2023 release: "There is also no need to fear running out of air in the elevator while waiting for the rescue services to arrive." NEII, the National Elevator Industry, Inc., makes the same point in its stalled-elevator guidance, saying that plenty of air circulates in the elevator and its hoistway, even if the car feels warmer.

DEKRA's expert frames the realistic worst case modestly, saying the worst that could happen is the car coming to an unexpected stop between two floors, and that the most important thing is to keep calm.

Myth: the doors are all that keep you safe

Doors matter, but they are only one part of the protection, and they work together with others. NEII says basic protection against an elevator moving while its doors are open has existed since the 1920s, in simple electromechanical devices later called interlocks. For elevators installed under the 2000 and later editions of the ASME A17.1/CSA B44 code, it lists additional features against unintended car movement with the doors open: detection of that movement, an independent secondary emergency brake, and a rule that the brake be reset manually before the car runs again. Door safety is a system, and it involves the machine, not only the panels you see.

Myth: when the power fails, the car drops

The brake design points the other way. NEII says that elevators built to the 2000 and later editions apply the emergency brake when a loss of power is detected. DEKRA says passenger elevators are designed so that they cannot plummet down, and are suspended with multiple safeguards. Power cuts usually mean a stopped car and a wait for help, not a fall. What passengers typically face is a delay, and the built-in alarm or emergency phone exists for exactly that. Backup power rules for those communication systems vary by jurisdiction, so we do not summarize them here.

Rare accidents are real

An honest page cannot say that nothing ever goes wrong. NEII itself writes that accidents can still occur even with its codes and protections, and in a 2019 statement it says that elevators remain one of the safest forms of transportation, citing more than 18 billion passenger trips a year in the United States. That is the industry association's own claim, not an independent audit.

HowStuffWorks, citing news reports, describes a November 2018 incident at the former John Hancock Center in Chicago in which one of the cables was reported to have snapped and the car dropped many floors. It says the passengers had no serious injuries but waited about three hours for firefighters, who had to break through a wall to reach them. We rely on that secondary account for the outline only, and details of any specific incident are properly the business of the investigating authorities.

A fair reading sits between alarm and complacency: layered design, regular inspection and maintenance, and sensible rider behavior all matter together. Regulation and enforcement differ by place, and the local authority has the final word. For how checks work in general, see inspection, maintenance and regulation.

The short version

The famous myths fail because an elevator is not held by one cable or one device. Multiple ropes, a governor with safety gear, brakes and a buffer are layered, and air in a stalled car is not a concern according to the sources we read. Rare accidents do occur, so maintenance and inspection matter, and the local authority and qualified professionals have the final word on any specific equipment.